Dr. appt

I had an appointment with the diabetic nutritionist last night. She wanted to see my test numbers and find out how my diet week went. She is satisified with my numbers, she said the are "acceptable". Ok, that is good to know. I can only have spinach once or twice a week, tofu only once a week, lentils only once a week.
I printed out my weekly nutrition information from my Spark page along with my weekly menu and showed her. She was VERY impressed with the print out and how great it is that I keep such close information and she wanted to know what program I used. So I told her all about Spark People and how they are my new family with so much support and friendliness etc. I explained all about the site and how it works. She wanted to know the site address and would I mind if she showed my print out to her colleagues, nurses AND PATIENTS AS AN EXAMPLE? She said she has bragged to her other drs, and patients about how well prepared I come to my appointments with my current prescriptions, questions, menus, list of food I eat, etc etc. WOW, I AM PSCHYED about this!!! I guess I watch too much House MD to not be prepared for a dr. appt.

DH & I had an interesting discussion last night. I told him that I had heard that I can get a 9 month exit/re-entry visa and did he know that. He said yes and he was thinking about requesting one for me this summer. I said that I really hadn't planned on being out that long this year. WELL, he said ................................, oh sorry, I don't want to say anything yet, not sure it will happen or not. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Coffee filters

DH sent me this in an e-mail.
COFFEE FILTERS

Coffee filters ..who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing.



1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave.
Coffee filters make excellent covers.



2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.


3. Protect China
. Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter between each dish.


4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.


5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.


6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.


7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.


8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.


9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.


10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent
the soil from going through the drainage holes.


11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.


12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.


13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them.
Soaks out all the grease.


14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."

OH YEAH THEY ARE GREAT TO USE IN YOUR COFFEE MAKERS

I'm here

I'm still here but not posting much. I'm on SparkPeople where I feel at home.

I don't get facebook, don't see where you chat with people and post messages like on message boards, never have found the games people play. facebook just locks up my browser pages no matter what browser I'm using.

The message boards are dying, don't know what's up with that, so I quit posting.

I do my boot camp challegne everyday, walk when I get up before 8AM and keep track of what I eat.

I was diagnosed with gout now so have to be on a "Low Purine" diet which means eating less of what I couldn't eat before. One diet says no this, another diet says more of this, one dr says no this, the other dr says this is ok. So I'm making a list of what one says no of and what the other one says yes. I get all this paperwork when I go to the hospital (yes, we're staying with the fancy smanchy 5 star, doorman/bellhop, chandelier hung hopsital) they print out my "diabetic guidelines', Cholesterol lowering guide lines, low purine diet guidelines, etc, etc, etc and they all counteract each other.

I am now taking blood pressure medication, thyroid medicne, Crestor for cholesterol/triglicerides, something for uric acid, vitamin pill, calcium pill, diabetes pill. UGH!

I finished my rememberance biscornu last week. I am not at all happy with the way it turned out, but it's done.

I started another SAL with another group and almost have January done. I HAVE to actually finish it and send a picture in of the FINISHED project and I CAN'T post it anywhere, what a crock.

I'm still cooking every damn night but trying to stick to the menus I print out, drinking 8-9 cups of water every day and I'm about to float away with that, at least my skin isn't as dry as it has been.

So that's my story.

SPREAD THE SPARK!

SparkPeople is the world's largest healthy living community with a free online diet and fitness program. SparkPeople is helping millions of people achieve their goals every single day!

Whether you want to lose weight, tone up, live a healthier lifestyle or reach other goals, SparkPeople can help--and it's 100% FREE!

SparkPeople is free because REAL people like you, are getting REAL results and spreading the word to their friends and families!

By Joining SparkPeople You Get:

- Calorie Counter & Meal Plans: Take the guesswork out of what to eat with these powerful customizable tools.
- Personalized Fitness Plan & Exercise Demos: Burn calories and tone your muscles with routines you can do at home or at the gym, plus online exercise videos.
- Active Support Message Boards: Get help from thousands of other people like you who are losing weight with SparkPeople.
- Advice From Our Experts: Our programs are designed by registered dieticians and personal trainers, who are also there to answer your questions.
- Member Created Goal Teams: Find others with similar goals and work towards success together.
- Recipes, Articles, Tips and More: Thousands of articles and over 60,000 recipes to learn more about eating right, staying active, and sticking to your program.

Join SparkPeople Now For Free!
www.sparkpeople.com

A must read!

Check this out!
http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=see_pictureperfect_portions_of_300calorie_meals

Yeah I know, you may think I've turned into one of those health/exercise/diet freaks. I sort of have, I know I need to loose weight, eat better, healthier foods and keep exercising and the only way I can keep up with my motivation and my goals is to talk about it. What can I say, I love Spark People, they have helped me a lot.

I kind of had my bubble burst today. I took DH's portable Garmin thing for hikers on my walk today and found out my 1 mile marker was not where I thought it was so I was not walking 1.5 miles every day, more like 1.2 miles. And I wasn't walking a 19 minute mile, more like a 21 minute mile. Kind of depressing so I kept walking until I had 2 miles, that took 45 minutes. I don't know what I am going to do when it starts getting warmer out there. I guess walk at 2 AM when it's only 95. I also did my day 11 boot camp workout and the abs challenge.

Last night I fixed diabetic Sesame beef stir fry (you can use tofu, chicken, shrimp too) That was pretty good. Now I need to make up my meals for next week so I can make up a grocery list for Thursday.

I had one of those afternoons. I couldn't find my jump rope so I started moving things and well you know how that goes. I picked up a bag of cross stitch stash, dug through that, sorted it, picked up another bag, looked through that, sorted that and combined it with the first bag, started going through the pile of stuff I sorted and started putting that where it belonged, then moved other stuff where it should be and went on from there. A vicious circle. I did find my jump rope though. So now I have a mess of bags I need to put back.

Woo Hoo it's Wednesday AKA Friday in the real world.

Baked Eggplant Parmesan recipe

Since I had a few comments about the recipe here it is. IT is SOOOOOOOO good! It's from Martha Stewart.com, my DH found it

Olive oil for baking sheets (I used cooking spray)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus 2 TBS for topping
1 tsp dried oregano (I personally would prefer fresh oregano, but can't find that here)
1/2 tsp dried basil (see note above)
Coarse SALT and ground pepper (I didn't use salt because I don't use salt in cooking)
2 large eggplants (2 1/2 pounds total) peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
(I used 1 medium one and was enough for the 2 of us)
6 cups any kind pasta/spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (I had to use no flavor low fat)

Preheat oven to 375F. Brush 2 baking sheets with oil; set aside.

In a wide, shallow bowl, whisk together eggs and 1 TBS water. In another bowl, combine bread crumbs, 3/4 cup Parmesan, oregano and basil; season with salt and pepper. I also added crushed red pepper flakes

Dip eggplant slices in egg mixture, letting excess drip off, then dredge in breadcrumb mixture, coating well, place on baking sheets.
Bake until golden brown on bottom, 20-25 minutes.
Turn slices, continue baking until browned on other side, 20 to 25 minutes more.
Remove from oven; raise oven temp to 400

Spread 2 cups sauce in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Arrange half the eggplant in dish; cover with 2 cups sauce, then 1/2 cup mozzarella. repeat with remaining eggplant, sauce and mozzarella; sprinkle with remaining 2 TBS Parmesan.
Bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted, 15 - 20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Blood test results

Hey all lurkers & friends, I put my site meter back up so now I can see were you are all from. You are more than welcome to leave comments too!

I got the results backon Saturday from my blood test I had on Thursday. I don't know what the numbers mean but:
Thyroid level is 0.971,
HDL is 42.51,
LDL is 117.30,
Triglyceride is 187.79 which he said was high
Cholesterol is 178.62
Alanine Aminotransferase is 21 - no clue what this is
Uric Acid blood was 9.17 which he said was high
Creatinine, serum was 0.66
So he put me on Crestor & a pill for uric acid. He said it was gout but I don't have any pain.
I go back in 3 months plus see a diabetic nutritionist on the 20th.

I have kept up with the Boot camp challenge on Spark People. Today I did the workout for Day 8 & day 9 which are repeats of days 1 & 2, plus I did the bonus challenge workout and I walked 43 minutes which was 2 miles. Now I need a nap. And those 8 cups of water a day, ENOUGH ALREADY! 8 cups is way more water than I can hold, I pee all day and all night.

Last night I fixed YUUUUUUUUUUMMMY baked NOT fried eggplant parmigiana & creamy basil chicken. The eggplant was so good, instead of breading & frying, you bread and bake in the oven then layer in a pan. That is definitely a recipe that needs to be laminated, LOL.

I even managed to stitch a bit yesterday.

Remember that candy tray? Well it's not full of candy, all the candy that is there is what you see in the picture. There is a piece of styrofoam covered with foil and STRONG double sided sticky tape. Each piece of candy is stuck on with the tape. The pedestal tray that it is on, looks like something out of Great Grandma's attic, it looks old & "aged" but I'm sure it's still expensive. The chocolates are Belgium chocolates.

So that's my boreing sob saga for today.

Day 6 of Bootcamp challange-UPDATED!

This is day 6 of the SparkPeople bootcamp challange. I have to say I have had a workout but I also do a lot of those exercises 2 or 3 times a week. When this is done, I am going to do each one of the tapes in one day.

So what do you get when you make a business phone call from here to the USA on a Wednesday night at 9PM? First, Wednesday is the start of our weekend, like Friday 9PM in the real world. DH had to make a business phone call to California on Wednesday night from the main office here on the compound. What did he get for his time? Are you ready for this?

CHOCOLATE, at least 5 lbs! One of the "office boys" brought this bag to DH around noon on Thursday. Now this is not your average box of Cadbury Jewels or Roses sweets. Um no, this arrangement came from a specialty chocolate shoppe wrapped up in cellepane with a flower bow on top and on a silver footed plate and I know it wasn't cheap. This chocolate is local chocolate so it will either be super sweet, creamy and delicious or dry & bitter. So, who wants chocolate?

OMG, THESE ARE HEAVEN! SO good, SO creamy. Liege Chocolatier is the name on them.

I had my 3 month blood work done Saturday morning, after fasting for 14 hours. It was for lipids, thyroid, liver function, kidney function etc. I won't find out the results until Saturday when I go back to the dr. I HOPE my numbers are down.

Last night I cooked Sesame Ginger chicken stir fry with brown rice. It was another good diabetic recipe and a keeper. Wednesday night I fixed Cuban Beans & rice which was good. I mis read the recipe though. I THOUGHT it said 1/4 CUP of red chili flakes. I said 1/4 cup? are they serious? I only put in about 1 1/2 TBS. DH called my attention and asked me if I had my glasses on when I was cooking & reading. It said 1/4 tsp! Good thing we like spicy food, LOLOL. It actually wasn't that spicy though. I also tried some Low fat vanilla Soy milk and it was GOOD!

We went to Starbucks Thursday morning after the blood work at the 5 star hospital. We were going grocery shopping but the grocery store wasnt' opened yet. I picked up something for someone ............................................... so who wants to start the "I know a secret for ................................" BWHAHAHAHAH

Day 4 of boot camp

Testing, testing. Ok, I am testing the daily motivational quote box. It says it will update daily so I'll be checking that. That way I don't have to add it in a post every day.

I walked my 36 minutes this morning then did my Boot camp day 4 video. It is suppsoed to be for abs but I know I did it wrong because my upper thighs hurt so I will have to try it again later, I need to get the fat abs gone.

That was a very enjoyable week of winter, we are now almost back to summer. Sadly at noon it's up to 82F already.

I bought a couple of books and a video the other day. In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey (insert the country I live in). From what others have read, it sounds very interesting. I also bought the DVD Unaccompanied Minors that I talked about yesterday.

I finally got around to making a menu for the week, well from yesterday until next Wednesday. Last night I made Ginger shrimp stir fry with brown rice. These are diabetic recipes. Today is Cuban beans & rice.

Another good workout

First I gotta say wonders never cease! Yesterday was a blah, day, I was tired all day because I didn't get my exercise in, I had a headache and had no ambition what so ever. DH came home from the grocery store in the evening with 2 Christmas cards from friends! I was so excited and happy! They were both surprises! THANK YOU AND HUGS TO V!!! It only took a month for both of them to get here and they weren't open which was even better.

I finally got the ambition last night to do the day 2 of the bootcamp workout and it was a workout. Using the stability ball against a wall and going up and down while holding dumb bells. Talk about wobbly legs!
I did todays workout already too and that was EASY! Using dumbells on the stability ball, working the upper body. That was after I did my 30 minute walk too.

Well my long lost "friend" is back. Haven't seen her since May now all of a sudden it's back! Really pisses me off, I thought I was done with that crap. I hope this is the last period. At least I'll get some use out of those toilet hoses.

Last night we had beef kebabs, brown rice & spinach. The beef kebabs were so nasty tasting. I hate the taste of the beef here, it's just so EEEEWWW, almost made me gag just smelling it. It wasn't rotten or bad, just the kind of beef it was.

We watched a couple movies on Christmas night, one was called Unaccompanied Minors, I haven't laughed that hard in ages, my face hurt, I couldn't catch my breath, my stomach hurt from laughing. See, while watching this movie about kids flying on Christmas Eve by themselves, "Unaccompanied Minor" status it reminded of my kids and how many times they flew that way. It was just tooooo funny! Then we watched The Year without a Santa Claus with John Goodman (NOT the cartoon version) That was another funny one!

I started my challenges on SparkPeople this week.

Went to the endocrinogolist on Saturday. Somehow gained another 3 lbs in a week! I am NOT at all happy with this! HOW? I have exercised, NOT eaten sweets, candy, snacks or anything like that! I am so pissed. My blood pressure was up too.

I am so sorry to my blogger friends for not stopping by your blogs. My Spark Challanges have me addicted to that site and that is where I spend most of my time. I am trying to make an effort to read more often.

Another BEAUTIFUL cloudy, overcast but cool day. only 78F at noon, too bad it won't stay this way. I have my patio door open and the screen door on.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New year everyone! I hope you have a healthy, happy, prosperous 2009!


No parties here, no bells, no whistles, no fireworks, nothing. Dead silence & DH was in bed by 11:30. I was stitching in the new year. I did stop and watch the fireworks from Moscow since they are the same time zone. This is what I was working on:

It's not a holiday here so we went to the bookstore today and I got a couple of journals to track my diet, blood glucose count & exercise. A new year, a new me, inshallah.

My Cross Stitch daily desk pattern calendar was good today, Every Morning is a new beginning" I may just stitch this.

It was dark, grey overcast and yucky today. It splotted a few drops while we were out but never amounted to anything.

That's about it for today